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Thursday, 6 February 2014

Reviews: Grand Magus, Mayan, The Vintage Caravan

Grand Magus: Triumph And Power (Nuclear Blast)

J.B, Fox and Ludwig together they are the
trad metal tour-de-force that is Grand Magus.Triumph
And Poweris their seventh
album and their fourth since they moved away from their doom direction to play
leather studded metal. So will this seventh album give you anything different?
In a word; no but what it does do is prove once more that Grand Magus are one of
the finest metal bands to come out of Sweden ever,Triumph and Willmuch stronger thanThe Huntbringing the Heavy Metal pomp and
circumstance that was onIron
Willwith the marching, fist
pumping On Hooves Of Goldstarting
things off in epic style before the heavy battle metal feel ofSteel Versus Steelkeeps the warrior style going. You
will never get a love song from Grand Magus but who cares with songs about
Vikings (Holmgang), war (the doomy Fight) and everything in
between (so long as it can make Chuck Norris weep). This is an album that will
make your beard grow without warning, with the title track being the bands
rally to arms (and a future set closer, mark my words) Again Grand Magus are
the heaviest three piece around with Fox and Ludwig's rhythm and percussion
sounding like the drums on distant longboat and J.B's guitars cut like a
broadsword and his voice calls to Valhalla. The album is well split with two
instrumentals the acousticArband the atmosphericYmerwhich is an intro to the truly
epicThe Hammer Will Bite.
yet again Grand Magus have done it again creating 11 tracks of metal so true it
would beat Manowar in a lie detector test! All I can say is roll on Hammerfest
as I can't wait to see these songs in the live arena and bask in The
Triumph And Power!! 10/10

Mayan: Antagonise (Nuclear Blast)

Mayan (or MaYan) is the project of former
After Forever keyboardist Jack Driessen, death metal guitarist Frank Schiphorst
and former After Forever/Epica founder Mark Jansen, the first album Quarterpast was
released in 2011 and mixed the AF members symphonic metal past with a death
metal bite. The album was a collaborative effort featuring many guest vocalists
and Sanders Gommans. This second album ups the ante again as it still has the
operatic symphonic death metal approach of the debut and guest vocalists Floor
Jansen (Ex AF, current ReVamp and Nightwish singer) and Marcela Bovio (Stream
Of Passion) both contributing. However something’s have changed as now the band
has more stable line up with the grunts and screams coming from Jansen, as well
as Henning Basse (ex-Metallum) providing the clean vocals (also can I put
Basse's name forward as the new Firewind singer) and Laura Macri being the
major female soprano on the album. This three prong attack gives the band the
sound of a more aggressive Amaranthe, mixed with the metal opera delivery of
Avantasia and the brutality of bands like Deicide. The lyrical content too has
become more poisonous as the band use this album to put across their ideas on
the Edward Snowden issue and makes the link between the current National
Security crisis in America and the visions of George Orwell. With all this
going into the album the music needs to reflect the weighty nature of the
lyrics and it does, the opening bonus track sets the scene by providing a
movie-like orchestral intro to the album that explodes into furious death
metal, the pace is kept high throughout with the amazing drumming of Arien Van
Weesenbeck who destroys throughout the album blast beating like machine gun on
every track and when mixed with the riffage, the keys and vocal trifecta it all
comes together as a brutal but melodic assault that only really lets up on the
acoustic/operaticInsanowhich is followed by perhaps the
album's heaviest trackHuman
Sacrifice. If you like your metal heavy, violent but full of melody and
technical prowess then you won't get better than Antagonise. Stick
it on, let it sink in and enjoy the brutality! 9/10

The Vintage Caravan: Voyage (Nuclear
Blast)

Hailing from Reykjavik
The Vintage Caravan play fuzzy, hard rock that has been influenced by the
band's parent’s record collection and perhaps some medicinal cigarettes. The
band are a three piece that play garage rock that has is influenced by Cream,
Hendrix and been brought back to life with bands like FreeFall, Wolfmother and
Rival Sons. The album straddles many
genres withLet Me Bebeing a propulsive rocker that
explodes into a killer solo before returning with a nice bass intro for the
final part, they have funk in the way ofExpand
Your Mind and even some bell bottom blues onCocaine Sally. Oskar Logi
Agustsson (the main writer) vocals are deep and resonant on the slower songs
like the country-fied Do You Rememberand
his guitar playing is pretty good too cranking out the fuzzed-up riffs
and electrified solos
backed by the relentless one-two drumming of Gudjon Reynisson and the power
line bass of Alexander Orn Numason. This long haired, hip shaking, mushroom
taking psych rock from a band that are too young to write trippy psychedelia songs calledWinterlandwhich sounds like the Cream of
Clapton, (sorry) and they really notch up the prog mysticism onThe King's Voyagewhich is over 11 minutes plus and
goes all Hawkwind in the middle ending the album with massive magical mystery
tour before the finale of Psychedelic Mushroom Manwhich HAS to be a lost Zappa
track. A very strong mind altering album from these Iceland natives and
one that will see them turn into a band to watch. 8/10